Kurdish intelligence chief: ISIS can be beaten in weeks

Masrour Barzani. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari The Kurdish head of intelligence and security says ISIS could be defeated in weeks if the world community became "fully engaged."

Speaking near the Sinjar front, a northern Iraqi town where Kurdish forces drove ISIS out last week, intelligence chief Masrour Barzani told the BBC that it was important to militarily defeat ISIS.

"Once they lose territory, there is no area for jihadist around the world to come to and they will lose their capability to recruit locals and lose capability to raise funds," Barzani told the BBC. "I think if the international community is willing to fully engage and military defeat ISIS, it should not take more than months or perhaps even weeks."

Despite setbacks in territory, Barzani doesn't believe ISIS is any significantly weaker. "It is very difficult to say that ISIS has weakened. They might be losing some ground here and there but to terrorize of course they are using different methods," Barzani told the BBC.

However, if Western countries were unwilling to send in troops, Barzani thinks they should provide greater support to other ground forces in both Iraq and Syria.

"If the international community is not ready to send troops on the ground… they have to provide sufficient support to forces fighting ISIS," Barzani told the BBC.